Accident during regatta

130 meters deep: Noble boat sank in Lake Attersee

Noble wooden boats, some of which are more than 100 years old, take part in the Atterseewoche. (symbolic image)(Bild: Krone KREATIV/UYCAS)

Horror for sailing enthusiasts during the "Atterseewoche": a fine wooden boat sank during a "classic car competition". Due to its great value, it is now being searched for with sonar equipment.

Within 40 seconds, the crew of four had been rescued in an escort boat - but the "small work of art" sank into the depths of Lake Attersee and now lies at a depth of around 130 meters.

"Something like this only happens to us every ten years or so," says Gert Schmidleitner, the internationally recognized race director of the organizing Union Yacht Club (UYCA), in response to the horror story of the Attersee Sailing Week. The incident happened during the "old-timer competition" with particularly exquisite traditional boats. In this case the "Bibelot II". Its name means "small work of art" in Polish, and with which UYCA sailors had achieved the feat of winning the special class national championship last year. The event uses fine wooden boats, some of which are more than 100 years old.

Eleven-meter dinghy got extremely lopsided and filled with water
However, the "Bibelot II" went "out of control" during a race - that's sailing jargon for when a boat becomes unmanageable. The eleven-metre dinghy also began to lean extremely, filled with water and sank to the bottom of the 130-metre deep and pitch-black lake.

Rescue operation for boat in the middle of the lake already underway
But it should not become her watery grave. A rescue operation has now been launched simply because of the value of the boat, which cannot be seriously estimated due to the collector's prices in the scene. Salzburg Water Rescue has provided a state-of-the-art sonar device to locate the dinghy. 

A diving robot of this type from Salzburg Water Rescue is currently being used to search for the boat.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Wasserrettung Salzburg)

Lifting the boat is extremely complex
The much greater challenge, however, will be lifting the 1.8-ton boat, to which specially equipped divers must first attach ropes before it is carefully lifted using air cushions. Schmidleitner: "The ascent process must be very slow, otherwise the pressure of the water will cause the boat to burst."